It is advantageous to manufacture the ropes of lifting devices, more particularly the hoisting ropes and suspension ropes of passenger transport elevators and freight transport elevators, including the compensating ropes and overspeed governor ropes of an elevator, to be of a composite structure. If the ropes of an elevator are formed to be such that their longitudinal load-bearing capability is based on non-metallic material, more particularly on non-metallic reinforcing fibers, the ropes can be made lightweight and as a result of the lightweightness of the roping the energy efficiency of the elevator will improve.
An elevator suspension rope having load-bearing composite parts is presented e.g. in patent publication WO 2009090299. By forming the rope to be composite-structured and belt-type, considerable savings can be achieved even though the inexpensive metal material conventionally used in the ropes of an elevator conventionally is replaced with more expensive material. Additionally, e.g. when the rope passes around at least one rope pulley comprised in the suspension arrangement, it is advantageous to fabricate the width of the rope to be larger than the thickness. One advantage, among others, is that the bending radius of the rope can be reduced without losing bearing surface area. As a consequence, the rope can be manufactured from rigid material, the elongation properties of which would otherwise prevent an advantageous bending radius. The rope can thus also be formed to comprise a larger cross-sectional area than before, via which the speed of the rope can be acted on, e.g. for braking the rope. In this way the rope can be acted on more reliably than before without damaging the non-metallic parts of the rope.
One problem in composite-structured elevator ropes has been their manufacturing technology. Lightweight, belt-type ropes preferably comprise a plurality of composite-structured load-bearing parts for transmitting force in the longitudinal direction of the rope. The longitudinal load-bearing parts of the rope have been manufactured separately and bound together with a polymer layer, which surrounds the force-transmitting parts. The rope has thus been manufactured in a number of phases and a polymer layer has had to be made on the surface of a number of parts, which increases costs and impairs productivity. In addition, the load-bearing parts of the rope have had to be stored on a number of reels, which hampers the manufacturing process and further increases costs.